Hello, Beautiful
by Blu Rose
Summary: Oneshot.RikuNamine.AU. You don't need to be able to see to know what's beautiful.


_Disclaimer: Blu Rose does not own Kingdom Hearts. If she did, Naminé and Roxas probably wouldn't have been Nobodies in the first place. But she doesn't, so they are, so there._

_**Hello, Beautiful**_

Through the darkness he had seen every day, it was a pleasure to hear her voice.

"Good morning, Riku? How are you doing today?" He heard her chirp cheerfully everyday ever since she had been hired to take care of him.

For Riku had been in an accident that temporarily put him in bed and blinded him for life. Or at least until his parents could find a doctor who could do laser eye surgery. Although he wasn't so sure about that part since his parents were so keen on spending the money that _he_ inherited from his Granduncle Xehanort when he passed away and even went so far as to hire a nurse to take care of him, as if they didn't expect him to get any better.

But over the course of days he'd spent with this girl—Naminé, she said her name was—he felt closer to her than any of the girls he had dated. He hadn't felt like this since Kairi in high school. Her voice was soft and soothing and her touch made him calm down when he was upset during those first days of being confined to a bed in a room. They often talked and chatted and he was amazed that she hadn't once tried to hit on him or ask about his money. Common sense said that she was just being nice and doing her job, but he was smitten with that girl. He wished he could see her to see if she was just as pleasing physically as she was spiritually.

At least until she said that dreaded sentence…

"I have a date with my boyfriend."

Her _boyfriend_, whose name Riku didn't care to remember, was apparently a lovely person. Or so Naminé said. He was there to pick up the pieces when a boy she had a long-time crush on told her he was dating someone else. Granted, they had their share of little fights, but she said she was always the one who started them by misinterpreting things. But she was happy with him. And it made Riku feel miserable.

And then one day, the first thing she told him after greeting him was, "My boyfriend left me." And while Riku felt thrilled at that statement, she sounded so sad as she continued, "My brother Roxas beat him up because we were having an argument. He tends to get violent when he gets upset. I wish he were more like Ven…" As much as the prospect of being beaten up by her brother scared him, he managed to push it aside. At least she was available.

"Listen… You wanna go out?" He managed to ask her the next day, when he hoped she had gotten over her boyfriend. Unfortunately, she misread his intentions.

"You want to go on a walk? Well, you _are_ well enough to walk now."

"No, I meant go out on a date." …Is what Riku wanted to say. Perhaps it was because he felt he'd be too lowdown to pick up a girl who had just broken with a boy that she obviously cared about very much, like a predator picking on an injured prey. So instead, he said, "No, I meant out to eat."

"Okay."

This led them to going to a café that Riku remembered going to a lot of times with his girlfriends. Although this time, it was strictly platonic…no matter how much he wished it wasn't so.

"Afternoon, how can I help you… Naminé?" He heard the waiter speak.

"R-Roxas! I-I thought you worked the night shift," Naminé spoke in surprise.

'_So this is her brother…?'_

"I'm covering for Hayner. What're _you_ doing here? Shouldn't you be resting after what that bastard did to you?"

"I'm _fine_, Roxas," the blonde girl spoke in a stern tone that Riku had heard for the first time. "Could you please just take our order?"

"…Who's your…_friend_?" The way he said the word _'friend'_ made Riku think that he wasn't afraid to punch him out like his sister's boyfriend.

"Riku. Now how about our orders, _please_?"

The rest of the time went by smoothly. Naminé talked about her close family, whom she lived with: her brother Cloud was in the army and he had just come home from where he was stationed. Roxas worked night shifts at the café while his twin Ventus—or Ven for short—worked during the day as an assistant kendo instructor. Naminé accidentally spilled that she was actually only _studying_ to be a nurse. Apparently she lied on her applications in order to get a job while drawing portraits on the side to help support her family. Riku was her first and only patient.

"You're not…upset, are you?"

"You think I would be, but I'm not."

"Huh?"

"If you hadn't lied…I wouldn't have gotten to meet you." This was usually the part where the girl blushes and swoons as he flashes that charming smile that caught the hearts of all his dates.

"Riku…!"

"By the way, I finally got a doctor in town who can do my laser eye surgery. Maybe you could be there when they cut the bandages?"

"Maybe…"

But then, the following day, the day of his surgery, his parents had informed him that Naminé had quit her job as his nurse. When Riku asked them why, they said they didn't know or cared, so long as they didn't have to look for her anymore. His mother then went on to say that being blind didn't excuse him from being around girls that looked like…_that_.

Those words along with Naminé's sudden resignation confused Riku for weeks as he spent time in bed, waiting for the day his bandages could be taken off. The moment that they were, the first thing on his mind was finding Naminé. He didn't know what she had done to engrave her being into his mind, but he felt that he should at least get one look at her before he never saw her again.

It was all surprisingly easy. After all, there was only one Strife listed in the phonebook. All it took was some computer work to figure out where they lived, and before Riku knew what the _hell_ he was doing, he was standing outside the door of the Strifes' apartment. He knocked on the door and it opened to show a man dressed in black with _very_ spiky blonde hair and blue-green.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

"Is that Axel?" A voice shouted from somewhere in the apartment.

"No!" The spiky-haired man called back, not taking his eyes off of Riku.

"Um, I'm a friend of Naminé's," the younger man spoke warily. If this one was Roxas, he might react violently like Naminé said he did.

"You don't look like any of her friends."

"We just met. She said she lived here with her brothers…?"

The spiky-haired man stared at Riku for a moment. "Hold on for a second." He closed the door, shutting it a bit harder than necessary. "Naminé! Some guy who says he's your friend is at the door!" The silver-haired young man heard him shout.

Seconds later, the door opened and young woman stood in the doorway. "Hello?" Her long blonde tresses hung over one shoulder, her eyes were the color of the ocean, and her lips reminded him of peaches. But her exposed skin was riddled with bruises. She had a fading black eye and a bandage covering the more exposed side of her face. She gasped and moved back, reaching to grab door when suddenly, as if motivated by impulse or some otherworldly force, he reached out, grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the apartment and into the hall. Naminé immediately hid her face in her hands. "Go away! Don't look at me like…" She trailed off as she felt herself being pulled into a hug. "Ri…ku…?"

"Hello, Beautiful," he said with a slight smile before kissing her forehead. "Don't leave me like that again…okay, Beautiful?"

"Don't call me that…! I'm not beautiful…! That's why Sora didn't want me…! That's why Seifer dumped me…!" The blonde started to cry. "So just…_don't_…!"

"It's their loss. Maybe if they got to know you like _I_ did…they'd know what they were missing out on…" The silver-haired young man tilted her head up so they could look at each. "Right…Beautiful?" He said with a smile as he leaned in and kissed her…

Until he was hit upside the head with a bat and fell down.

"Roxas!" Naminé exclaimed, glaring the white-clad blonde standing behind her. "How could you _do_ that?"

"What? I heard you crying! And it's only _plastic_!" Roxas defended himself, tapping the plastic bat against the doorframe.

"I'm okay…!" Riku grunted as he got up, holding onto his head. He looked at Naminé and got over his pain. "So, wanna go out?"

"N-_now_? I can't do that, I-I still have a portrait to finish… Maybe later…?" She stuttered, blushing.

"Alright. I'll just wait here until you're done. May I come in?"

"S-sure! Right this way," Naminé said as she grabbed hand and led Riku into the apartment, followed by a glaring Roxas.

"Cloud? Time to put those interrogation skills to good use," the younger brother told the elder as he walked into the living room.

"Fine. But put away the bat before you do something you'll regret, huh?" Cloud said as he stood in the kitchen area.

"Somehow, I doubt that…" Roxas muttered, sticking out his tongue slightly as he stared at Riku and Naminé.

**X-X-X**

**Review for the sake of Blu and Namiku! You know you want to, ya foos!**


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